


Bridie x Solas Prompt Collection

by inquisitorsmabari



Series: Prompt Collections [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Modern Girl in Thedas, One Shot Collection, prompts, see individual chapter warnings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-04-05 05:42:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14037411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitorsmabari/pseuds/inquisitorsmabari
Summary: Bridie Shaw ended up in Thedas, somehow, and in a relationship with Solas. These are the prompts to accompany their relationship and the MGIT fic coming later this year.





	1. Im trying to get work done

“Hey, Solas!” Bridie hopped herself up onto Solas’ desk, dodging the magical objects, candles, and heaps of notes which he had sprawled all over the wooden surface. He hadn’t noticed her walk in, and he didn’t seem to notice her sat there, either, even as she swung her legs loudly against the wooden panels. “You working on your murals today?” She asked him, interrupting the rhythmic thud of her feet hitting against hard wood. “I have some free time.”

“No, I’m trying to get some work done,” He said, refusing to look up from his papers. “Shouldn’t you be busy, we’re leaving for the ball in three days.”

“Oh no, I’m done,” She shrugged, turning her attention to her nails, which she had been picking at far too much recently. “I’m not allowed to get involved, I don’t really know what I’m doing.” She turned back to him then, leaning over to see what he was working on. Although why she’d bothered, she had no idea, all she saw were scribbles and symbols. “What are you working on?”

“Just some magical theory,” He sighed, drawing himself back from the desk and looking at her with eyes heavy with fatigue. “Why don’t you go to the library and do some research on the Winter Palace?”

“I tried,” She sulked, pouting her lips. “But it was so difficult!”

“Alright,” He sighed again, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. “I’ll teach you a bit about Halamshiral.”

“Great!” She cried, drawing her legs up so she could sit cross legged, facing her new teacher with a look of earnest.

“You know that the elves lived in the Dales?” He asked her, leaning back in his chair and looking at her intently, his fingers placed under his chin with his fingertips touching.

“Yes, I did go to the Emerald Graves very recently,” She told him, rolling her eyes. “I’m not that dumb.”

“Well did you know that Halamshiral was their capital?” He questioned, his eyebrows raised. “That it was taken from them by Orlais and they were forced to surrender it, along with themselves, to the empire?”

“No…” She said, her voice quiet as she processed her thoughts, her fingers absent mindedly picking at her nails one again. “The elves in the Emerald Graves, they all died protecting the Dales, and Halamshiral, and now the Empress sits there drinking and dancing, inviting heretical elves to her balls?”

“Yes, exactly,” He said calmly. “It’s always important to know the history of a place before you visit.”

“So now when I go, I have to make them all suffer,” She spat, her face crumbled in disgust as she looked down at her battered nails. “On behalf of my ancestors.”

“They aren’t your ancestors though,” He told her, the trace of a smile gracing his lips.

“No, not really,” She said, straightening her back and throwing back her chestnut brown hair as she looked him squarely in the eye. “But if I’m going to be here as a Dalish elf, I may aswell stand up for them, seeing as God gave me the power to do so.”

“So maybe you should do some background reading?” He suggested, nodding towards the stairs to the library.

“You sound like a professor,” She teased, crossing her arms and leaning her head slightly towards him with a smirk. “Excuse me for not being a good student.”

“You’re a rubbish student,” He told her, returning her smile with twinkling, tired eyes. “And you’re distracting me from my work.”

“Fine, I’ll leave,” She said as she slid off of the desk, dragging her feet across the room and towards the door to the great hall.

“Bridie.” He said firmly, causing her to twirl around with an eager smile. “The library.” She moaned at him, her shoulders dropping as she sulked, dragging her feet towards the stairs which circled the rotunda. She took one last look at him, thinking he would have buried his head in his notes by now. But he hadn’t, instead he watched her with an amused smile as she pouted.

“I’m going, don’t worry,” She told him, as she turned back towards the stairs, dragging her body weight up each step as she began to ascend the climb towards the dusty, miserable, old library. But, before she reached the top, she thought she heard a voice behind her, a gentle voice echoing against the old stone walls.

“I always worry,” She thought it had said, and she felt her face break out in a smile.


	2. You ruined everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warning for post-relationship angst

“Inquisitor?” Josephine’s gentle, Antivan voice called out from the doorway as Bridie led on her back on the soft bed, her limbs sprawled out across the covers as her abandoned paperwork lay scattered around her. She barely looked up, cursed by the stomach cramps which told her that a month had already passed since the last time she had led in this exact same position with the exact same look of fatigue drawn upon her face. Except this last month had been painful, in more ways than one, and her heightened hormones only made her whole life ten times worse. “Solas wants to speak with you, he asked me to come and get you.”

“Tell him to fuck off!” She cried, staring up at the canopy above her head with weary eyes.

“Look, Inquisitor,” Josephine said, marching into the room and towards the bed. She sat up in an instant, like a child being scolded, as Josephine stood in front of her with her hands on her hips and a face like a storm. “I’m not getting involved in your personal issues.” She told her, her foot tapping against the wooden floor. “But you have to take down Corypheus and Solas has some kind of information on it that you might need.”

She looked at Josephine for a second with a sullen face and hair which flopped in front of her eyes, putting on a sulk as she looked at her advisor. But, she was right, she could sulk all she liked, but she needed him, especially if he had any news on her getting home. “You’re right,” She sighed eventually, dragging herself off of the bed and across her room with her shoulders slumped and her feet dragging slowly across the floor. Her body ached anyway, but the thought of facing the man she had been avoiding for months made it feel like she had been punched by Iron Bull a thousand times.

Josephine followed her out of her room, almost pushing her towards the door to the room Solas had made his own as they entered the great hall. It was like she was being supervised, but then it had always felt like that here, pushed towards making decisions she didn’t always understand. The one thing she felt she’d really had a choice in was her relationship, but then that had very quickly gone down the toilet.

Entering the room was like being stabbed in the thigh all over again. His mural was all but complete, telling the story of everything she had done, every choice she had made, brought to life by not just the paint on his brush, but her own, an activity they shared over the months at Skyhold which was between them, and no one else. And then there was him. Standing behind his desk as he almost always did, with his notes sprawled out in front of him, his eyes roaming over the mess as if he could find anything amongst the heap. But then, as she shut the door behind her, he looked up, and this time it was like being stabbed in the heart.

It took them a few seconds to recover but, of course, he did first. “Bridie,” He said, his voice cold as he stared her down. “Thank you for coming.”

“Get on with it.” She sighed as she marched towards the desk, the desk where she used to sit and distract him from his work, or arrange his paints into a more ordered fashion, or clean his heavily abused brushes.

“It’s about the Breach, and you going home,” He began, slipping into his usual lecturing voice as he looked down at his notes. “I’m fairly sure that defeating Corypheus will send you home, and it’s likely that the Breach will re-open again once he appears, so seal that too and you should be back where you came from.”

“Great,” She said bluntly, folding her arms over her chest.

“But you must be prepared for the fact that it may not,” He continued. “And, if it doesn’t, I don’t know what else will.”

“So, that’s it?” She asked, raising her voice as everything inside of her, every bad thought, every ounce of anger and grief that she thought she had mastered, threatened to burst out of her. “I might be stuck here?”

“I thought you knew that,” Solas shrugged, his eyes avoiding her gaze as he shuffled some papers. “It was always a possibility.”

“I did!” She cried, finally relinquishing her self-control and letting the wave of emotion wash over her, her body almost shaking with the effort. “I knew that, and I was prepared for it! I was prepared for the fact that I may never see my family again, my friends. That I may never finish my art degree or smoke a cigarette or visit my father’s grave again. I built a life here, people had begun to respect me, I had friends, and I had you. But now? I hear them out there, whispering as I walk past. Laughing at me, calling me weak, a glorified whore who was stupid enough to fall for an apostate.” He went to interrupt her, but she stopped him, with a raised hand and a shrill, tear laden cry. “No! I have had it with you. You have been playing me around since the beginning, messing with my feelings. And now you tell me I might be stuck here forever? With someone like you?”

“Bridie-”

“No!” She turned to walk away, her head burrowed beneath a thick veil of untidy brown curls. But then she stopped, whirling around to look at him once again, his knowing eyes turned down in what she hoped was shame. “I hope to God that killing Corypheus does send me home. Because if it doesn’t, and I come back from that fight, and you’re still here?” She stopped briefly, swallowing her indignation and straightening her back, lifting her tear stained eyes to pierce his gaze one final time. “I will kill you.”


	3. Could you be happy, here, with me?

Solas had led her, well, led them all, for miles and miles, as they lifted their legs through heaps of snow and braced themselves against the constant onslaught of bitter icy winds. For much of the time, they spoke little, concentrating on the path ahead of them as they climbed mountains and traversed the icy paths. And while they walked, she escaped into her thoughts.

They’d closed the Breach. They’d been interrupted, but it was closed, the sickly green storm clouds no longer sat menacingly amongst the clouds, circling above them as vultures circled prey. This wasn’t Belfast, the Breach was closed, but she was definitely still here. 

“Everything ok?” A voice cut through her thoughts, snapping her back to reality as she looked up from the thick blanket of snow she had been wading through. Solas had stopped, hanging back so that he now walked at her side, pushing his way through the snow with his staff as his guide.

“I was just thinking about the Breach,” She sighed, looking up at the now clear blue sky, which looked so beautiful now that the festering green wound had been healed.

“You’re wondering why you’re still here,” He said calmly, his gentle voice giving him the air of a worldly professor as he began to say his piece. But, first, she had learned, you had to ask.

“What do you think then?” She asked him with a sigh, turning her head to look him in his cold, knowing eyes, just as a smile began to broke out on his face.

“I have my theories,” He told her with that sly smile. He was desperate to share, she could tell. But, as always, he drew it out, revelling in the knowledge that he could keep secret before imparting it on the unknowing. “That maybe we were wrong about your fate being tied to the Breach.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him as he continued his speech. “Maybe it's Corypheus.”

“But he’s ancient, he’s been here for...I don’t know how long” She said dismissively. “I’ve only been here for a week.”

“True,” He said, unaffected by her dismissive tone. “So I think it's more likely that the Breach isn’t actually healed. That maybe we just bandaged up the wound, and it won’t heal until Corypheus has been dealt with and can no longer meddle with the veil.”

“So I have to kill him?” She asked him, her voice quiet as the words sunk in. She’d killed a few people now, largely faceless people who had attacked her first. But this was a being that called itself a god, a powerful entity with a dragon at its beck and call, and she was just a girl trapped in the wrong world.

“Most likely, yes,” He said, his eyes fixing on her own as they continued their slow walk up the mountain path. “But even if this wasn’t about you getting home, he is a threat to this world, and that’s what this Inquisition set out to do, save the world.” He paused, looking at her with an even greater intensity, his eyes boring into her soul as if she were being interrogated. “It’s the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, of course,” She said, her gaze dropping to the snowy floor as she continued their walk. “But what if it doesn’t send me home?”

“That is a possibility,” He admitted, trailing behind her slightly as he trudged through a particularly thick snow drift. “Have you considered that before?”

“No, not really,” She said meekly as she pushed some loose strands of hair behind her ears, the size of which she still couldn’t get used to. “I just thought closing the Breach would work, I didn’t expect a god to turn up with his pet dragon.”

“No, I guess not,” He chuckled, but his breathy laugh was underlined by a grief she could see in his eyes, in all of their eyes, as the weight of their losses continued to hang heavy over the group. “Still, if you couldn’t go home, could you be happy here?” He asked her, his voice low as he drew himself closer to her, so that her shoulders brushed against his upper arm. His voice dropped even quieter, a whisper shared between the two of them as he added: “With me?”

She looked up at him, his wise, gentle eyes, his graceful smile, is proud stature that stood tall against the bitter cold. She had enjoyed his company from the start, no one had been so helpful to her, no one had understood her very strange situation quite as well as he had. And he was just so kind.

“Yes, I think I could,” She told him, her voice resolute as her smile turned to a grin. It had been a while since she had smiled, a genuine smile that is, not one of those that she threw at all the well wishers, the ones who praised her heroism, her act of martyrdom, her apparent blessing from a god she didn’t know. But, the truth was, she was happy when she was with him, even when their conversation turned to silence and they simply walked together for more miles and miles of snowy mountain paths, she was happy, and how could that be a bad thing?


	4. Sorry, we're you sleeping?

She knocked on the heavy oak door three times, but no one answered. She tried shouting, calling out to the solid wood in front of her, but no one answered. So she did the only thing she could think to do, she walked in.

It was dark inside, there was very little natural light, and no one had yet lit the candles which were scattered around the room. So, at first, she didn't see the man slumped over his desk with his head buried amongst piles of paperwork as she announced her entrance into the room in her usual manner.

“Hey, Cullen, I hope you're not busy?” She asked, strutting across the room towards his desk, where she registered for the first time the sleeping mass of human in front of her eyes, which had at least begun to stir. “Sorry!” She apologised loudly as she was met with low sounding mumbles. “We're you sleeping?”

“No!” He cried, shooting up from his desk with wild eyes and hair that stood up at odd angles. “I wasn't sleeping, Inquisitor,” He promised as he arranged the notes on his desk with earnest. “I just didn't hear you come in.”

“I am known to walk very quietly,” She suggested as he began to blush, the embarrassment of being caught in an uncompromising state apparently too much for him to cope. “Don't worry,” She assured him with a sly smile. “I don't give a shit.”

“It won't happen again,” He said defiantly, his eyes turning down to look in his lap before changing the subject rapidly “What was it you needed, sorry?”

“I came to ask you a favour,” She began, leaning slightly upon his desk. 

“What kind of favour?” He asked. He sounded worried, as if she were about to send him on some dangerous errand, or confess her love for him or something.

“I understand there's been rumours going round about me,” She told him as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears. “I expect you've heard them?”

“Can't say that I have,” He lied, his face turning pink as she stared at him with an interrogative look. 

“Sure,” She said. “I just wanted to ask if you could try and control these rumours amongst the soldiers.” 

“I can't stop them talking.” He told her bluntly with a shrug of his shoulders. 

“No,” She admitted with her own shrug. “But you could be subtle about it.” She suggested, but all she got was a confused look from Cullen. “I don't know,” She sighed, folding her arms across her chest. “Maybe you could walk past one day and say very loudly that I don't date bald guys?”

“And why would I be talking about that on my rounds of the camp?” He asked her with a smug look, his lips curling into a crooked smile. “I mean this is just a suggestion…”

“Yes?”

“But maybe people wouldn't talk if you didn't keep kissing each other all around Skyhold?” He suggested with another shrug of his shoulders and a smugness that was starting to get on her nerves.

“Why, have you been watching?” She asked, raising her eyebrows at him and tapping her foot against the floor.

“Its hard not to when you go to pray and you bump into the two of you…” He trailed off, turning his attention to massaging the back of his neck with his hand. “You know…”

“We haven't done anything like that,” She assured him, throwing her long brown hair behind her shoulders as she stared him down. “It's not that kind of relationship.”

“Yeah, right,” He scoffed, before clearing his throat loudly.

“It isn't!” She cried, her words descending into a chuckle as she realised the ridiculousness of the situation. Her, explaining her non-sex life to Cullen, who she had found fast asleep at his desk in a lapse of his stern countenance. She always got on with this Cullen, the one who wasn't commanding. “Anyway,” She continued. “Where do you pray?”

“In the garden,” He told her as he sat up in his chair, stretching out his fatigued limbs. “There's a small room off to the side.”

“Ok, well I promise to stop kissing in the garden,” She said, extending her hand put to him. “If you promise to _try_ and deal with the rumours, deal?”

“Deal,” He agreed, shaking her hand enthusiastically. 

“Great!” She said enthusiastically as she turned to leave the dark, musty, office. “I've got to go and… get some work done,” She told him, turning around to give him one last, knowing smile. “Why don't you take the afternoon off, have a good nap?”

“Thank you, Inquisitor,” He said with a smile, his tired gaze dropping to his lap as his body relaxed in relief. “I'll see you around.”

“But not in the gardens!” She assured him, throwing a laugh over her shoulder as she escaped the office and walked back out into the fresh air of the rather brisk afternoon, trading along the battlements which conveniently led into Solas' study.


	5. When you look at me like that...

They often spent their evenings this way, sat together on the balcony outside of her rooms, watching the hustle and bustle of the keep beneath them as the citizens of Skyhold went about their business beneath a burning orange sky, the setting sun casting shadows fringed with gold over the keep and those who dwelt in it. She would sit with a cup of tea whilst he sat in silence and watched the world go by. They rarely spoke in these moments, they never needed to fill the silence with meaningless words or chatter. They simply sat together, enjoying the company of the other in the most effortless way.

When she finished her tea, she would turn her attention to the people below, or she would bring a book out and read, or bring out her sketchbook and while away the time with doodles and scribbles. But, tonight, she did none of those things. Instead, her eyes found themselves falling on her companion as he sat in contemplative silence with his eyes fixed on the world below. In the dying light of the sun, the outline of his strong jaw was even more pronounced, the twinkle in his eye even more obvious. And when his eyes turned on her, it was like they shone.

“Bridie,” He said quietly, his voice gentle and calming as he spoke into the cool evening air. “You are dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” She asked, throwing him a cheerful laugh as she put her empty tea cup to one side.

“Yeah, because when you look at me like that, it makes me want to give you my heart, completely, unconditionally,” He said with a sincere tone, but she just laughed, a shrill, high pitched laugh that echoed against the castle walls. 

“Then why don’t you?” She said with a beaming smile, throwing her mass of curly hair over her shoulder. “It isn’t hard.”

“It isn’t that easy, either,” He told her with a somewhat cold tone that cut through her laughter and made her stop and stare at him, her eyes narrowed as she studied the man before her. 

“I think I get it,” She said, after some time. “You know in my world, I’m like you, too scared to open up and let people in.” She shuffled in her seat, throwing her head back against the backrest and staring up at the sky which had turned a deep, blood red. “I’m just scared of losing people, getting myself hurt. But this is a different world, and I’m not even convinced it’s real. So I just… let go.”

“It’s real for me,” He murmured, his eyes cast down as he stared into his lap.

“I know that!” She said, rolling her eyes as a grin spread across her face. “But if you’re going to beat yourself up about it, just give in. Let yourself go. Free yourself. Open your heart.” She turned to him properly then, fixing her eyes on his as she stared him down with a sincerity that she often struggled to muster. Her voice dropped to a whisper, a plea, as she reached over and touched one his hands ever so gently, like the brush of a soft feather on skin. “Let yourself love me.”

He turned back to her, looking at her with pitiful eyes that looked so haunted, so desperate. He wanted to, she could tell, he wanted to let go, relax into her love and give into his feelings. So she leaned forward, ever so slightly, cocking her head to the side with that sweet smile she did that she knew could disarm anyone. And it worked.

He brought her in for a kiss, a strong, passionate kiss just like the one they had shared in the dream version of Haven, their first ever kiss, except with more to it, more passion, more fire, more love. It pushed her backwards ever so slightly, the force of his desire threatening to leave her breathless. But it was good, so so good, with an intensity she had yet to feel from him. But it all ended so soon, and she was left to catch her breath while her head descended from the clouds.

“See,” She said between breaths, her lips stretching into a grin as her eyes lit up with excitement. “Doesn’t it feel good?”

His only answer was to launch into another kiss that threatened to send her to another world, again.

 

 

 


	6. I'm not going anywhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warning for angst

“I’m not going anywhere, until you tell me why.”

When she had last said those words, she had been smiling, laughing, her ever present smile spread into a grin as she stood with her hands on her hips in front of Solas, who had his hands held behind his back.

“Please just step outside,” He sighed, looking down at her with an air of fatigue. “It will take two seconds.”

“Fine!” She huffed, stamping her feet and turning on her heel to march out of the rotunda. “But I’ll be back in two seconds.”

And she was, almost, she certainly wasn’t stood outside his door for long before he called her back in. She had to stop herself from charging into the room like a bull, instead choosing to take long, deliberate steps, so that she looked more like a gazelle leaping across meadow, except a lot less elegant. Planting herself down on top of his desk, she looked up at him with wide, eager eyes, her hands placed in her lap delicately as Josephine always told her to do.

“So what did you get me for my birthday?” She asked him with a sweet smile.

“How do you know I’ve bought you something for your birthday?” He teased, his smile warming her heart as he looked down at her.

“Because you told me to get out and wouldn’t tell me why,” She said with the enthusiasm of a young girl. “And you’re hiding something behind your back.”

“Well, you’re right,” He sighed, relaxing his stance and removing a paper wrapped bundle tied with rope from behind his back. “It isn’t wrapped very well, though, sorry.”

But she didn’t care, as soon as he gave her the package, she tore it open, removing the brown paper with ease and revealing the present, or presents, underneath. She was always amazed at his gifts, he had gone from gifting flowers, to tiny drawings, and then of course there was the violin. But she thought he couldn’t top that, and yet he did. Inside the bundle were all the art supplies she needed here, charcoal, graphite, paper, paints. All the stuff she was desperately running low on, that she had moaned at him for not having, and he had pulled through.

“Thank you so much!” She cried, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down into an enthusiastic series of kisses. “You’re the best!”

\---

It all seemed like so long ago, now, her birthday. But it wasn’t, not really. Yet it was as if it were a distant memory, one which she clung to like it was her only salvation, like it was the only thing stopping her from drowning in a sea of despair. And now, as she marched to Solas’ rotunda with a renewed sense of purpose, determination, and grief ridden anger, those happy memories were more bitter than ever.

Since that day at the lake, all she had done was cry, or scream, or swear, so much so that her face ached with the physical effort of it all. But she was done crying, the tears had all dried up now. And now she was angry, bitter, and she wanted answers.

The door swung open, and she charged her way into his office with her heart heavy with grief, her stride heavy with determination, and her eyes filled with rage, a rage which threatened to explode when she saw him sat there behind the large wooden desk, as if nothing had happened, as if nothing was wrong, as if he hadn’t ripped out her heart and shattered it to pieces before her eyes. She stood before him, her hands on her hips, her eyes locked on his, and her face contorted into a snarl, as she addressed the man before her, the man who had betrayed her trust.

“I’m not going anywhere, until you tell me why.”


	7. A scared kiss

Her heart was racing, beating with the ferocity of a thousand war drums as she dashed through tangles of weeds and puddles of thick black water which oozed as she charged through, her boots covered in a viscous mixture of mud and infected water. Blood coursed through her veins, urging her on, pushing her beyond her limit as she raced through the mire. She dared not look back. She couldn’t. If she took one look at her chasers, she would freeze with fear, and they would take her one by one until her life faded away, and she became one of them.

She would not join the legions of the undead.

Something cracked loudly underfoot, and she heard herself scream as pain pulsed up her leg in throbbing burst. Every step she took felt like she was walking on knives, but she couldn’t stop. She had to keep moving. She had to. 

But soon, she crumbled, she broke, her legs giving way as she fell into the thick tangle of weeds and brambles that covered the path below her feet, her body crying out as the thorns and nettles tore at her skin. She tried to get up, tried to drag herself back onto her feet, but she couldn’t. 

And soon, they came for her. One by one. And this time, her scream was real.

She woke, her eyes wild with fear as she sat upright in her cot, looking around her at the small canvas tent she had slept in, with its low hanging ceiling and its close walls. For a second, she felt safe, knowing that all that she had witnessed had been a dream, and her dreams were always so real, so strong. But then she remembered where she was, where they had camped, and soon the moonlight which streamed through the holes in the canvas was no longer comforting, it was terrifying.

Something moved outside her tent. She heard it, first, the rustling of leaves underfoot and the cracking of twigs. Then she saw it, a shadow, tall and menacing in the moonlight as it stood outside the entrance to her tent, reaching its hand out to the corner of the canvas, its fingers closing around the fabric as it pulled the tent flaps open. 

She screamed again. 

“Bridie?” A gentle, confused, voice called out to her in the darkness. And then her elven eyes adjusted, and she saw who was standing in the entrance of her tent. Solas.

“Solas!” She cried, her hand resting over her heart as she caught her breath. “What the hell are you doing creeping around like that?”

“I’m sorry,” He said, approaching her with some caution. “I thought I heard you scream.”

“Oh, yeah,” She blushed, her gaze dropping to her lap as he stood over her. “I had a scary dream.”

“A scary dream?” He half laughed, his words escaping in a chuckle before he quickly cleared his throat. “What about?”

“The corpses,” She muttered, suddenly feeling very childish as he looked down on her with a curious air. “They were going to kill me.”

“It was only a dream,” He told her gently, his soothing words slowing her rapidly beating heart and calming her nerves. Slowly, he brought himself down to her, planting a soft kiss on her sweating forehead and pushing her damp back back behind her pointed ears. “Better?”

“Yeah, much better,” She looked up at him, throwing him a smile as he held her head in his hands. “But maybe you should stay here tonight, just in case.”

“Alright, if it helps,” He said, planting himself down on the bed next to her, this time bringing himself in for a slow kiss on her soft lips. “Sweet dreams, Bridie.” He wished her as they clambered back into bed, his words a prayer spoken with the deepest affection, accompanied by the stroking of her thick curly hair as she led against the pillow. 

The prayer worked. Her dreams after that were, indeed, sweet.


	8. Love bite

Their favourite way to fall asleep was in each other’s embrace. Solas was tall, much taller than her, and she was so small that when she curled up on her bed at night, he could curl up around her, enveloping her in the comfort of his warmth. She would often fall asleep to the sounds of their breaths, which rose and fell in a perfectly synchronised rhythm, easing her into a deep sleep filled with strange, lurid dreams. But, sometimes, sleep would elude them for a time, the two of them lying wide awake as they held the other in their arms, or telling stories, and giggling at the silly parts, or just lying together on the bed doing their own thing, reading, drawing, sewing, enjoying each other’s presence in a blissful silence.

This was one of those nights.

Tonight, Solas had chosen to read from a book, what the book was about, she had no idea. All she knew was that he stared at the pages with such an intensity that it seemed as if his gaze would burn a hole in them. But she had nothing. She had been drawing, but then she had finished. Now, she was lying on her bed watching Solas ignore her. Well, he wasn’t ignoring her as such, he was just concentrating. But everytime she prodded his skin with her dainty finger, and he refused to look her way, she huffed.

“I’ll be finished soon,” He said finally, looking up at her briefly before his eyes returned back to the page. “Just let me finish this chapter.”

“But I’m so bored!” She wailed, rolling over onto her back and spreading her arms out on the soft down.

“Then go to sleep,” He told her with a frown, burying his nose further into his book.

“But I’m not tired,” She sulked, rolling back onto her front so that she could stare at Solas, watching him as he tried not to hide from her gaze behind the book. “Won’t you give me just a little bit of attention? _Please?_ ”

“Alright,” He sighed, putting the book down on the bedside table before turning to her with an exasperated expression. “But no complaining.”

“Why would I complain?” She asked as he approached her, watching him crawl across the bed with a somewhat sinister air until he was above her, watching her squirm below him, before she saw him lower himself, bringing his lips to her face. She smiled, waiting for the touch of his lips on hers. But they never did. Instead, they went to her exposed neck, kissing the skin slowly, gently, lovingly, until it turned rough, his soft lips closing on the skin and pulling at her, biting, sucking. “Solas!” She cried, her laughter stifling her words. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

“Well, consider that your punishment for interrupting me,” He said as he drew himself back, climbing off of her and returning to learn against her pillows. Reaching out to the bedside table, he picked up his book again, burrowing his nose in the old, yellowed pages once again. “Now let me finish this chapter.”

The next day, Sera would not stop prodding the bruised skin on her neck, and Bridie found herself walking with her shoulders hunched and her chin tucked into her coat for most of the day.


	9. You're so comfy

Escaping was her favourite thing to do, running away from her flock of loyal followers to spend her days in the peace and tranquillity of the snow covered woods outside of Skyhold. Except she could never shake off the most loyal of her supporters, who even now picked his way through the woods behind her, dodging tree roots and brambles with his careful step whilst she danced ahead, skipping through the trees like a gazelle as it pranced away from the predator at its heel.

“Hurry up!” She cried, turning on her heel and goading him on with an enthusiastic smile. “You’re so slow!”

“I’m not slow,” Solas chuckled in the distance, his voice echoing against the thick trunks of the ancient trees and disrupting the still, silent air.

“It’s like walking with an old man,” She laughed, before turning on her heel and launching into another sprint, putting as much distance between her and Solas as possible before he could retaliate. Although, she had no idea how true that statement was, how old was Solas anyway? She always thought of him as one of those who seemed so much older than they were, carrying the weight of their cast knowledge on weary shoulders and tired eyes.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a large, decaying log lying across their path, covered in a thick blanket of moss and shackled with twisting vines as it shivered beneath the dusting of snow on its back.

“We’re here!” She called back to him as she leapt up onto the log which was almost as large as her. “Come on!”

“I don’t know how such a small person can be so fast,” He sighed as he approached the fallen log and sat himself down elegantly on the old, peeling bark. “Don’t you ever get tired?”

“Sometimes,” She said as she leant back onto him, her head falling into his lap with her hair splayed out over his legs. “I’m a bit tired now, actually.”

“That would be because you sprinted the whole way here,” He looked down as if he were scolding her, but it was his smile that gave him away, it always was. The sly smile and the twinkle in his eye undercutting his lecturing tone.

“Well now I can stay here, have a snooze, and miss out on that horrible dinner party with the Orlesians,” She said in a sing song voice as she closed her eyes and settled into a comfortable position, or as comfortable as possible when led on a decaying log.

“We can’t stay here forever,” He chided as she felt him brush a lock of hair out of her face. “You’ll have to face them at some point.”

“Oooh,” She whined, opening her eyes and pouting her lips as she sulked. “But I don’t want to get up, you’re comfy.”

“Am I?” He asked her with a soft chuckle as he looked down at her with gentle eyes, his fingers stroking the hair that lay against his lap.

“Yep!” She said defiantly, closing her eyes again as she scrunched up her face to block out the dim light of the sun. “Just tell them that, regrettably, the Inquisitor has fallen asleep and will be unable to see them at this time.”

“I can’t do that if you’re sleeping on me,” He reminded her, but she refused to hear it, waving her hand in his direction as she continued to shut out the world.

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out,” She told him, and he didn’t argue, it was easier not to, after all.


End file.
